Martin Russ explores his new G3 Mac a little further, and looks at the music prospects for Apple's new iBook.
So, I have a 'Blue & White' Macintosh G3 at last. The G3 box is big, and the G3 inside is bigger than you might imagine — despite all appearance to the contrary in photographs, it is actually only slightly less wide than the width of this page. But at least the fan is quiet — one of the quietest that I've heard in a while, with almost none of the industrial whine that I've lived with from my old 7300.
However, it isn't perfect. The mouse is far too round, and one of my first post‑G3 purchases was a more conventionally‑shaped USB mouse to replace it. I know that there is an ADB socket on the rear panel of the G3 so I could have just used a spare old‑style mouse, but the cable on the mice that I have is too short, and I'm still debating with myself as to whether I can live with an older and paler QWERTY keyboard. As I mentioned last month, the reversal of colours to give dark keys with white lettering may look cool and hi‑tech, but in subdued lighting, it's a bit of a disaster, especially where you have a 19‑inch monitor blasting out light into your eyes.
Anyway, let's get back to things that probably matter rather more. It's quite fast. It runs MacOS 8.6 (it came pre‑installed with it, so this machine has never even seen 8.5), and 256Mb of RAM slotted in very easily, which should be sufficient for running quite a few of the more memory‑thirsty reviewer's nightmares over the next few months. I asked for a Stealth serial port to be fitted, and that's how the G3 came, pre‑fitted and ready to be investigated. Fitting the Stealth port means you lose the internal modem card option, but this is a small price to pay for something which lets you connect MIDI devices and external modems to what seems to be a standard old‑style serial port.
I started where you are obviously supposed to start these days: with the Internet. My modem worked fine straight away, and it only took a little bit of configuration to get me online, where I registered my G3 at Apple's web site. It's probably worth pointing out here that if you do upgrade from an older Mac, you should initially run both machines simultaneously, because that way it is very easy to check the old machine's configuration settings. Item number 2 on the list of things that you probably would not have thought of ordering (after a USB mouse) is a 10/100 base‑T Ethernet cable so that you can connect two Macs together and move across any preference, configuration or data files.
At this point you're probably champing at the bit, waiting to see if a MIDI interface would work with the Stealth card and the new G3. Because I'm a difficult‑to‑please reviewer, I naturally chose the worst option first: a single‑port, MIDI‑powered interface box. This is a demanding test for a Mac serial port, because this sort of interface takes its power from the port itself rather than from an external power supply. It worked fine. OMS detected a 'standard' interface on the modem port, and found the Yamaha SY99 that I had hooked up to the In and Out sockets. Next, I tried my Opcode Studio 5LX — the centre of my studio's MIDI connectivity. Once again, OMS found the Studio 5LX on the modem port, but this time it didn't find the Yamaha SY99 and I had to manually configure it (but then I had to do the same on the PowerMac 7300, because it didn't recognise all my devices anyway). It worked, but running a Studio 5LX's 15 separate MIDI ports from a single serial port isn't as good for timing as the two‑port (printer and modem) setup I used to use on the 7300. To reproduce that sort of setup I would buy a PCI card that provides two or more serial ports, like the MegaWolf I've mentioned several times before (contact Hinton Instruments www.hinton.demon.co.uk).
Since everything was going swimmingly, I connected up my old beige QWERTY keyboard and an old mouse into the ADB port, and discovered that the power‑up triangle worked as before, and that you could indeed see the keys much better in low‑light conditions. The USB keyboard may have a smaller footprint, but it looks like I am going to use an ADB keyboard. The USB mouse, however, gets my vote because it lights up green whenever you press the button — pure frippery (and not mentioned when I ordered it!) but I like it.
So, as you've seen, the 'Blue and White' PowerMac G3 seems to work fine with standard serial‑port MIDI interfaces if you fit the Stealth card: I'll look at USB MIDI interfaces sometime in the future. Over the next few weeks I will be moving my software across, which involves doing things like unauthorising it on the old machine, and then getting it re‑authorised on the new machine. I expect this to bring me hard up against my old enemy: copy protection. However, I was very encouraged when I asked UK Mark Of The Unicorn (MOTU) distributor MusicTrack's Mark Gordon about installing Digital Performer on a G3. "No problem. It works fine. Just type in the serial number. No floppy. No Challenge and Response," he said. As of this moment, I'm very favourably inclined to MOTU's G3‑friendly attitude, and I'll let you know how the other software turns out as I proceed.
iBook
More on Magma's PCI slot expander systems for PowerBooks at www.magma.com.
After the transparency of the iMac and the 'Blue & White' G3s, it was pretty obvious that the iMate's replacement would share the see‑through colouring and handbag‑style handle look. So given that we live in a world where devices originally intended for consumer use are often snapped up by professionals, how does the 'Orange or Blue' coloured iBook fit into a computer musician's viewpoint?
Purely personally, it would be the orange for me! But there are some issues which mean you might still be better off with a desktop or PowerBook G3. Memory first: the single SO‑DIMM slot means that you can add just one 128Mb memory module, giving a total of 160Mb of RAM — fine for many purposes, but start throwing digital audio at it and it begins to look limiting. The system buss is also only 66MHz, instead of the 100MHz that you would find on a desktop G3. Again, a consumer user is going to be looking at the headline 300MHz G3 processor specification, and not worrying about how fast that processor can move data around inside the machine, but those whose main interest is audio recording will have different concerns.
As predicted, the iBook has no SCSI, and the built‑in modem might preclude a Stealth‑type serial port add‑on (although check www.geethree.com for news of a Stealth card serial port for the iMac!). There's no FireWire networking (only 10/100 base‑T Ethernet), no PCI slot, no built‑in microphone, no video output, and no PC card slot either, which means that the USB port is your only way of inputting audio. The PowerBook's PC card slot, by contrast, is very useful for audio applications, especially if you make use of US manufacturer Magma's external PCI slot units, which can provide two, four or even seven PCI slots, and make the PowerBook a serious contender for some professional audio and video applications — PowerBooks equipped thus were used for on‑set dialogue editing for Star Wars Episode 1. See www.magma.com for details.
Apple have also missed the anticipated sub‑thousand pound price mark, with advance orders (at the time of writing) from Apple being quoted at £1249 (including VAT) on the www.apple.com/ukstore UK pages. This is cheaper than a PowerBook, but I think the PowerBook has the edge for professional portable music and audio use — and don't forget the PowerBook's 10‑hour battery life as against the iBook's six hours. Conversely, until a transparent and brightly coloured PowerBook appears, the iBook definitely wins in the fashion accessory 'handbag lookalike' department.
Test Tone Two
Have you ever wondered what happened when you said 'OK' to the 'Should I convert from 48kHz to 44.1kHz sample rate?' dialogue box question? Read, digest, and then use Make A Test Tone to check out your own utilities.At the risk of mentioning AudioEase yet again, version 2 of their Make A Test Tone freeware utility is now available for download from the www.audioease.com web site. Version 2 now includes support for 24‑bit audio files and the Ensoniq PARIS file format. Their web site also provides an interesting comparison of sample‑rate conversions. The example shown is for 48kHz to 44.1kHz, and highlights the aliasing effects that can sometimes be produced. Well worth a look as an interesting lesson in the differences between apparently identical functions in digital audio software applications.
Purely personally, it would be the orange for me! But there are some issues which mean you might still be better off with a desktop or PowerBook G3. Memory first: the single SO‑DIMM slot means that you can add just one 128Mb memory module, giving a total of 160Mb of RAM — fine for many purposes, but start throwing digital audio at it and it begins to look limiting. The system buss is also only 66MHz, instead of the 100MHz that you would find on a desktop G3. Again, a consumer user is going to be looking at the headline 300MHz G3 processor specification, and not worrying about how fast that processor can move data around inside the machine, but those whose main interest is audio recording will have different concerns.
As predicted, the iBook has no SCSI, and the built‑in modem might preclude a Stealth‑type serial port add‑on (although check www.geethree.com for news of a Stealth card serial port for the iMac!). There's no FireWire networking (only 10/100 base‑T Ethernet), no PCI slot, no built‑in microphone, no video output, and no PC card slot either, which means that the USB port is your only way of inputting audio. The PowerBook's PC card slot, by contrast, is very useful for audio applications, especially if you make use of US manufacturer Magma's external PCI slot units, which can provide two, four or even seven PCI slots, and make the PowerBook a serious contender for some professional audio and video applications — PowerBooks equipped thus were used for on‑set dialogue editing for Star Wars Episode 1. See www.magma.com for details.
Apple have also missed the anticipated sub‑thousand pound price mark, with advance orders (at the time of writing) from Apple being quoted at £1249 (including VAT) on the www.apple.com/ukstore UK pages. This is cheaper than a PowerBook, but I think the PowerBook has the edge for professional portable music and audio use — and don't forget the PowerBook's 10‑hour battery life as against the iBook's six hours. Conversely, until a transparent and brightly coloured PowerBook appears, the iBook definitely wins in the fashion accessory 'handbag lookalike' department.